Do you see what I see?

Annual film festival promises to enlighten, challenge views

Sarah Kehoe - kehoesm@plu.edu

mast a&e reporter

Students from PLU’s Language Department are presenting the second annual Hong International Film Festival Wed. May 7 at the Washington State History Museum.
The festival took place in Admin 101 last year and was so popular that there was little room for seating, making a new environment that would allow this event to be an even bigger splash essential.

Created last year by former German assistant professor, Annekathrin Lange the idea behind the festival was to show collaboration across the languages.

“Film production is a wonderful learning tool for students,” Lange said. “It is a creative challenge as it provides them with the opportunity to publicly show their accomplishments regarding language proficiency, cultural understanding, and technology and might even work as an incentive to major in one or the other language.”

This year the theme is “Ways of Seeing” derived from the novel written by Berger and Kuhn.

This is based on the ideas which stemmed from Copernicus’ discovery that the sun does not revolve around the earth, which caused people to redefine their perspectives and understanding of the world in which they lives.

“It is in this spirit that we seek short films that challenge our own ways of seeing,” said French professor Scott Taylor, organizer of the festival this year. “We want films that shed new light on so-called familiar territory, films that offer greater depth of perspective and that consequently free the object from its traditional context and normalized mode of reception.”

Students in the French, Spanish, German and Norwegian classes will be making 7 to 10 minute films in this way, with 11-12 total films in the language of their study with English subtitles and presenting it to the audience members while being judged by a panel.

“My hope is that students think differently about film because of this project in the sense that they watch differently, their critical vision becomes reshaped, and also that they realize what they are capable of,” said German professor Kirsten Christensen.

An award ceremony will follow the presentation of the films giving the students awards including best cinematography, screenplay, editing, film and the people’s choice award selected by the audience.